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Comment by Kenji | Hacker News Reader

I think the key here is

Form follows function

Many gamedevs don't get this. The underlying mechanics form the core gameplay. You can always make the story, looks and characters fit, but if your game mechanics are boring and broken, only major rework or starting over helps. In fact, the form being restricted by function may even be beneficial for the creative process and make the form more original.

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But if most customers buy all those games anyways, why should they change their methods? I mean, I’m all for Nintendo, and I have their current gaming systems, but I only have like two other friends who have Wii U, and all the others have PS4 and mostly love shooters or FIFA. Nintendo has kept afloat because, most of the time, they keep the same prices through the life of their systems, so they sell enough to keep going. Anyways, I hope they never really go bankrupt, or go the other companies’ way.

But if most customers buy all those games anyways, why should they change their methods?

If Windows sells, why should you make Linux?

If iPhones sell, why should you make Android phones?

If gasoline cars sell, why should you make electric cars?

Because we can do better. Because we should do better. And even if we do not - we force the orignal versions to be improved or lose their market share. We push boundaries by improving upon existing products. Frankly, I cannot enjoy games that put form before function.

AAA "realistic graphics, games as movies" only has so many potential buyers. Not everyone can survive in that space.

http://kotaku.com/why-game-developers-keep-getting-laid-off-...

http://venturebeat.com/2014/07/18/why-triple-a-devs-are-goin...

This is why I always went with bottom-up design.

I would prototype dozens of small game ideas in Flash without much planning until I found one that I spent more time playing than I did making.

Flash was great for banging out prototypes super quickly, thanks to its built-in graphics and animation support. I miss it.

You might want to take a look at Haxe and the OpenFL library!

For all its quirks (and there were LOADS) I do still miss it. Any recommendations of something thats quick to prototype games with?

processing.org and love2d.org are nice little platforms for interactive visual stuff

For what its worth, a friend of mine still makes a living from making Flash games. He even uses AS2!

Kongregate, Facebook, and Steam have quite a few users that play Flash games.

Chrome plans to make Flash click-to-play in December 2016 (with a temporary whitelist, to be removed in July 2017, for Facebook and a few other popular sites), so I would recommend he look into moving to HTML5-based game system soon!

The nostalgia! I programmed my first game in my early teens in AS2! Those were the days... Hehe. I think Macromedia Flash/ActionScript 2.0 were the perfect tools to get started with programming, I was really lucky. I don't think I would have done much with a mere C++ command line back then.

You can churn out a complete HTML5/JavaScript game in 2 evenings. Granted, you have to import images and don't have the convenience of just drawing something and making a MovieClip out of it. However, fundamentally, it's very similar - you just have to program the main loop yourself with requestAnimationFrame and/or timers.

HTML5 still can't handle the animation heavy games I used to make in Flash. It's still a pain in the butt to make those type of games with traditional spritesheets. The fast vector graphics engine really allowed for some crazy feats with a very snappy and reliable container.

That being said, I the type of games I make now, it could probably handle, but it hasn't been anywhere near as pleasant of an experience to work with, so I've been pretty bad about porting my games to HTML5.

While this may be generally true, I think that Rez is a counterexample. The gameplay is satisfying, and it doesn't get in the way, but it's very simple and not particularly new or interesting. The music, the scenery, the graphics. That's what that game is all about.

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